THE EVALUATION OF PLANT EFFECTIVE INDICES ON GROWTH AND PRODUCTION OF SAFFRON AGROECOSYSTEM IN SOUTHERN KHORASAN, IRAN

From the ancient times, the red scarlet stigmas of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) have been valued for flowering and coloring foods, and saffron also has a long history in Iranian agriculture.
In order to evaluate the relation between production of saffron and planting date, first irrigation, first flowering time and length of flowering period, an on-farm study was conducted in 2007 and 2008. Four selected locations for this study were Birjand, Khosf, Gazik and Mahmoei, which are the main saffron production centers in southern Khorasan, Iran.
All the needed information was calculated based on actual data, collected from 80 saffron farms, aged between 1 and 5 years.
The most frequent planting date was observed from 25^th of July to 21^st of September.
This was from 23^rd of October to 1^st November for the first irrigation applied and for most farms flowering started from 19 to 21 days after first irrigation.
The highest frequency of planting dates in Gazik and Mahmoei was from 6^th to 21^st of September, while most of farms were planted in Birjand and Khosf in October, according to gradient of temperature, and more than 60% of saffron farms were planted with hill method.
The length of the flowering period in farms with 5 years was more than others, and this factor showed a positive linear relation with yield.
Normal distribution function for flowering period indicated that this factor varied between 9.5 to 26 days.
The longest flowering period was observed for Gazik.
Highest actual yield was for Mahmoei which is an indication of better farm management in comparison with the other areas.

III International Symposium on Saffron: Forthcoming Challenges in Cultivation, Research and Economics

M.A. Behdani, M. Jami-alahmadi, A. Akbarpoor

first flowering, first irrigation, length of flowering period, planting date saffron

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.850.29